Seoul's Climate Card Is Ending: What Replaces It, and When
If you have been buying Seoulโs Climate Card (๊ธฐํ๋ํ์นด๋) โ the unlimited 30-day transit pass โ it is going away, and the window to act is measured in weeks rather than months.
The replacement launches on 1 September 2026 and the naming is genuinely confusing, so here is the whole thing in order.
Three names for what is basically one change
This is the part that trips people up, and Seoulโs own Q&A leads with it, which tells you something.
| Name | What it is |
|---|---|
| Climate Card (๊ธฐํ๋ํ์นด๋) | Seoulโs own unlimited monthly pass, launched 2024. Being wound down |
| K-Pass (๋ชจ๋์์นด๋) | The national scheme. Refunds a share of what you spend, valid nationwide |
| Climate Companion Pass (๊ธฐํ๋ํํจ์ค) | K-Pass plus Seoulโs own extras, from 1 September |
So: the city is not replacing its pass with a worse city pass. It is folding its pass into the national one and bolting its perks on top. If you already use K-Pass and live in Seoul, the new benefits apply to you automatically from 1 September. You do not have to do anything.
If you are on a Climate Card, you do.
The machines run in English โ but the Climate Card is no longer among the things they sell you. A notice beside the screen sends you to the i-Center instead ยท โ @BalliBalliSeoul
The dates that actually matter
| Your card | Last top-up | Last day it works |
|---|---|---|
| Prepaid 30-day (์ ๋ถ 30์ผ๊ถ) | 31 August | 29 September at the latest |
| Postpaid (ํ๋ถ ๊ธฐํ๋ํ์นด๋) | โ | 30 September |
| Short-term passes (1/2/3/5/7-day) | โ | Continuing |
Two things follow from that table.
A prepaid card topped up on 31 August still runs its thirty days โ it just cannot be topped up again. Nobody is cutting your current month short.
A postpaid Climate Card does not stop working on 1 October. It turns into an ordinary transit card. The travel keeps happening; the discount stops. That is the failure mode to watch for, because nothing will tell you it has happened except a fare that no longer gets refunded.
The short-term tourist passes are not going anywhere. If you are visiting rather than living here, none of this applies to you.
What you get instead
K-Pass does not sell you unlimited travel. It refunds a share of what you actually spend, and it picks whichever of three calculations leaves you paying least.
| Standard | Youth ยท senior ยท 2 children | 3 children | Low income | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Refund rate | 20% | 30% | 50% | 53.3% |
| Flat cap | โฉ62,000 | โฉ55,000 | โฉ45,000 | โฉ45,000 |
| Flat cap, Plus | โฉ100,000 | โฉ90,000 | โฉ80,000 | โฉ80,000 |
Read the flat cap as a ceiling: spend more than it in a month and the excess comes back to you. Spend less and the percentage applies. The system runs all three and gives you the cheapest, so you do not have to work out which you are on.
The Plus row is for people whose commute includes the expensive stuff โ the wider metropolitan services that the Climate Card never covered at all.
The age change worth knowing
From 1 September, Seoulโs definition of youth stretches from 19โ34 to 19โ39. If you are 35 to 39 and live in Seoul, you move into the youth tier: 30% back under โฉ55,000 a month, the youth flat cap above it.
There is a discount running out at the same time
Between 1 April and 30 September 2026 there is a temporary fuel-price measure attached to K-Pass, and it is substantial.
Refund rates roughly double during off-peak boarding times โ standard 20% becomes 50%, youth 30% becomes 60%. The off-peak windows are:
- Morning: 05:30โ06:30 and 09:00โ10:00
- Afternoon: 16:00โ17:00 and 19:00โ20:00
Times are measured when you board.
The flat caps are halved for the metropolitan area at the same time โ the standard โฉ62,000 becomes โฉ30,000, the youth โฉ55,000 becomes โฉ25,000.
The practical consequence: switching in August or September is worth more than switching in October. Seoulโs own answer to โshould I wait until 1 September?โ is no โ the sooner you move, the more of this you catch.
How to actually get one
Three routes, and the registration step is the one people skip.
Credit or debit card version. Apply through a card company as you would for any card, then register it on the K-Pass site. Refunds start the following month.
Prepaid version. Buy one at a convenience store, then register it twice: once with the issuer โ T-money, Ezl and so on โ with your card number and the account you want refunds paid into, and again on the K-Pass site.
Mobile version. Issued in an app, registered the same way as the prepaid card.
The registration is not optional and it is not automatic. Without your card registered on the K-Pass site, with your personal details, there is no refund. You can do it at any point in the month โ the calculation runs on that monthโs spending either way.
If you live outside Seoul, read this twice
The Climate Companion Pass refunds are for Seoul residents.
If you live in Gimpo, Goyang, Gwacheon, Guri, Seongnam, Hanam or Namyangju โ all places where the old Climate Card worked โ the Seoul benefits are not yours. Gyeonggi Province runs its own version, The Gyeonggi Pass (๋๊ฒฝ๊ธฐํจ์ค), and that is the one to sign up for.
The same shrinkage applies to the surviving short-term passes: they now cover Seoul and getting off at Incheon Airport, and no longer stretch to those cities.
This is the single biggest trap in the whole change, because the card in your pocket will keep tapping in and nothing will announce that the money has stopped coming back.
The โฉ30,000 payback closes on 31 August
Separately from all of the above: if you charged and used a 30-day Climate Card between April and June, there is a โฉ30,000 payback you can claim through the T-money Card & Pay site. Applications close on 31 August.
The paper route, which is the part written for us
Seoulโs own guidance lists the people who cannot realistically apply online, and foreigners are named on that list, alongside over-65s and people without a Korean simple-authentication method.
For those groups there is a manual application by post, fax or email. Print the form from the T-money Card & Pay site, attach proof of name, card number, refund account and residence โ for foreign residents that means a ์ธ๊ตญ์ธ์ฌ์ค์ฆ๋ช ์, a certificate of foreign resident registration โ and send it in.
- Email: [email protected]
- Fax: 02-6989-0120
- Post: (04535) ์์ธ์ ์ค๊ตฌ ์๊ณต๋ก 70 ์์ธ์ค์์ฐ์ฒด๊ตญ ์ฌ์ํจ 2023ํธ ใํฐ๋จธ๋ ๊ธฐํ๋ํ์นด๋ ์๊ธฐํ๋ถ์ ์ ๋ด๋น์ ์
It is worth knowing this exists. The online path assumes a verification method that plenty of foreign residents simply do not have, and the alternative is not advertised anywhere in English.
Your old card is worth a coffee, or a new card
Between 1 September and 23 September, twelve major stations run swap booths.
Hand in an expired Climate Card and you get a physical Climate Companion Pass card in exchange, one for one, free โ a โฉ3,000 card for a โฉ4,000 one. Already switched? Hand the old card in anyway and they will give you a coffee or convenience store voucher for it.
The twelve stations:
- North of the river: Seoul Station, Seongsu, Konkuk University, City Hall, Yeonsinnae, Nowon, Hongik University
- South of the river: Jamsil, Sadang, Seolleung, Yeouido, Gasan Digital Complex
Staff at the booths also help older users install the app and register on K-Pass, which is the fiddly part.
Still to come
Three things Seoul has said are coming but has not dated precisely: a youth discount extended to discharged servicemen up to 42, a Ttareungyi bike-share link, and cultural venue discounts โ the last of which needs a change to city ordinance first. All are described as arriving within the year.
The Korean part
Almost none of this exists in English. The Q&A is Korean, the K-Pass registration is Korean, the issuerโs site is Korean, and the manual refund form is Korean โ the form written specifically for people who cannot manage the Korean online system.
If you read Korean, go straight to the source. Everything above came from the cityโs own question-and-answer page, and it has more detail than we have put here โ every rate, every date, the card designs, the lot: ์์ธ์ ๊ธฐํ๋ํํจ์ค Q&A. It is the authoritative version, and it will be updated before we are.
Stuck on the switch? Send us a photo of your card or the screen you are stuck on. Our anything-else concierge service will tell you what it says and what to press next, in English. First answer is free โ message us on WhatsApp or KakaoTalk.
Get it sorted
The one-line version: top up a prepaid Climate Card by 31 August and it runs to 29 September; a postpaid one quietly becomes an ordinary card on 1 October. Register for K-Pass now rather than in October, because the doubled refunds end on 30 September โ and if you live outside Seoul, the pass you want is The Gyeonggi Pass, not this one.
For what a single journey costs while you sort this out, we keep the fare guide and the T-money guide current, and the transport guide covers which card to use for what.
Details from the Seoul Metropolitan Governmentโs official Q&A on the Climate Companion Pass, as of August 2026. Dates and rates change โ check with the city or T-money before planning around them.